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BICENTENNIAL SPEECH: BLACKS AND THE CONSTITUTION
Phyllis McClure
NAAP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, Inc.
March 1987
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Mr. Moderator, Arthur Turner, President, Nelda Spears, President Emeritus, Velma Overton, Executive Board Members, Cynthia Fairley, Banquet Coordinator, honorees, Mr. Mayor, dais guests, friends, supporters and also those of you who just dropped by because someone you respect handed you a ticket and said "Buy It"! - Good evening!
[*Our young soloist Laura Ann Johnson - A beautiful once a century voice.. That was said about Mahalia, remember?]
I am glad to be a part of a program that offers a special tribute to retired teachers. Cynthia Fairley - the person who communicated with me and whose effective not so gentle persuasion made me understand completely that I should leave my family this Thanksgiving in Norfolk, VA and fly out to be with you tonight. Don't ask me what she said to convince me. I cannot recall - but I suppose it was along the liens of "how it just had to be me etc., etc. and after listening to all of that flattery - Cynthia had me thinking that coming to Austin was my idea. But you know - I am glad that you invited me. After reading about the Austin Chapter and your many struggles, After reading about the vibrant, purposeful giving life of Arthur DeWitty in whose name you give your award - A man of intellect, courage and wit who knew and understood his roots, who charted and travelled his road and who stood from and championed right.
I didn't know him: but I didn't have to be a direct
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beneficiary of his work and his legacy - as he passes on to us the baton in this relay race for justice.
From what I have read, Arthur DeWitty was the kind of man for whom the 4th Chapter of Timothy speaks (6-7th verse).
(6) For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand [but]
(7) I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.
N.A.A.C.P. - Austin Branch - I've been reading about you- you've been busy running this relay race for Justice - school desegregation litigation, critically important voting rights litigation - our ancestors would be proud that you have not only remembered - but you the succeeding generations have received the baton - handed off to you in this relay race - and that you have not dropped it, you are not standing still with it - but you are continuing to run the race. I am glad to be in Austin tonight.
I bring you greetings from the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and our Director-Counsel, Julius Chambers (formerly of Charlotte, North Carolina). (We're lucky to have him: one of the finest lawyers in this country) His superb argument before the Supreme Court in the recent Voting Rights case had a lot to do with the victory in that lawsuit.
[Julius took the Court to school]
You and I both know the LDF - as we are called - and the NAACP are separate and different organizations. But you also know that you gave birth to us in 1939 and that both of us have
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been in the battle for Justice for a long time. Although our Boards of Directors and our officers are different, you know that since our birth - this child you have spawned - in our 47 year history we have spent over $60 million litigating cases seeking equal rights free from racial discrimination. In this relay race for justice, Thurgood Marshall the first Director-Counsel of this NAACP Legal Defense Fund passed the batn to Jack Greenberg - who in 1984 passed it to our present leader Julius Chambers.
One thing I have learned in my years at the Legal Defense Fund - and I didn't just learn it - and that is a basic lesson who fundamental truth is rooted in our history - and that is simply - that we need one another. As it has been true in the past - it is no less true today. There is nothing that lawyers like more than a captive audience - but as I see you sitting there, my new found friends, I see the plaintive look in your eyes and can feel you collective pleading!
How long, O speaker, how long?
My reply to you is not long, my capture, my hapless victims, not long.
You know - on my mind tonight is this subject to which I keep referring: This relay race for Justice: this passing of the baton you know several things have to happen when you're in a race for Justice. There are five principles to running this race for Justice.
1. First, you've got to know you're in a race (in other words - we ain't there yet) The race is not over. (Sometimes it might feel
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